Festival Fun!

On our last night in Michigan, we headed to Charlevoix for dinner. The kids enjoyed getting to see the drawbridge go up and down to let the boats pass through.

After a nice dinner, we headed to a little carnival/fair in the center of town. I remember attending many street fairs when I was little in the town of Albion, Indiana, where my Aunt Debbie and her family live. I was so excited for the kids to try to ride many of the rides and play some games...until I found out that the tickets cost $1 each and most rides used 3-4 tickets. Geez! Whatever happened to tickets costing 25 cents?? So I told the kids to pick 1 or 2 rides.
Their favorite were these "super trucks" that went around a track.
Clare looks so tiny in her big truck! They all rode this two times since they loved it so much.

We next rode on the "jumbo elephants." It was almost like riding on the Dumbo ride at Disney World. Almost. :)

The kids were just all smiles!

Then some kids started getting a little goofy...like this girl, who used her necklace as a headband and asked me to take a picture of her...

...and then did silly poses when I was trying to get a cute mom/daughter picture. It was time to head home for bedtime!

We left the next morning and headed back to Indy. My parents actually offered to take all of the grandkids in their minivan and let all of the adult kids ride in our car. What a sweet deal!! I honestly couldn't believe they wanted to do that...thanks, Mom and Dad!!

We are so glad we could all find time to get away together for a little family bonding. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to do it again!

Fun at Avalanche Bay Waterpark

Last week we went to Boyne Falls, Michigan, for a little getaway with the Schenher family. Unfortunately my allergies were awful the first few days, and I just didn't feel like myself. I didn't take many pictures of our adventures, but thank goodness Kelly was there to be the official photographer! (Thanks, Kelly!) On Monday we went to Young State Park and let the kids play on the beach and in the water. On Tuesday we found a cute little lake called Deer Lake, which had free kayak rentals. The kids loved the kayaks as well as just playing on the beach. By Wednesday I was feeling a little better--just in time for a trip to an indoor waterpark! Here are some of my favorite pictures:

Uh-oh...something's wrong here: Everyone is dry!

I was so surprised that Clare LOVED going down the slides!Grace and Reese didn't go down the big slides, but they sure had a lot of fun!
I'm pretty sure Reese did more laps on the lazy river than all of us combined. She even went by herself several times. She's getting so big!

Ryan's favorite slide was the pink one. It had a long tunnel and was pitch black until the last few twists and turns. He was smiling so much with his mouth wide open that I was sure he was swallowing so much water at the bottom of the slide. He would get off and immediately go, "Can I go again?"

Not a great picture, but you get the idea. He was having a blast!

Joel and my dad each surfed the big waves. Joel even rolled over (on purpose) and made it look too easy! Sorry I didn't get a picture of that--you were too fast!

My dad did a great job for his first time. Look at him showing off! Can you believe this guy had surgery 6 weeks ago??
They turned off the waves and the whole crowd cheered for him. We were all impressed!

Steamboat Springs

On Tuesday Joel had to work all day, so I had the day to myself. I drove around the town of Steamboat Springs, which is where Joel's conference was for the week. I found a McDonald's where I could get my Diet Coke, so life was good! After that I settled in by the pool and just read a book...without any interruptions! That night I went to see "The Proposal" in a cute, old movie theater in the middle of "downtown." It was so quaint. I think the room I was in had about 8-10 rows of seats and was only slightly larger than my family room. Okay, maybe a little larger, but not much! Anyway, this was the first time I had seen a movie in the theater solo, and I really enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

On Wednesday Joel only had to work a half day. We both decided to take a hike up the nearest mountain/ski slope by our hotel. Actually, we looked into taking the gondola to the top, but it was $20 per person. The guy said if you hiked to the top, they'd pay for your ride down. We figured nothing could be worse than the hike we did on Monday, so we thought that was a pretty good deal.


This hike was 3.8 miles to the top of the peak. But the difference between this hike and Monday's hike was that there was very little leveling off--it seemed like we were constantly climbing! Several people passed us as they were on their way down the peak. They would laugh and say they were taking the easy route. I thought, "Yeah, but we're taking the cheaper route." :)

Since it was about 1 in the afternoon, it was really hot. I didn't think about that one too much when we started. We were pretty exposed to the sun on the first mile or two, which made it that much worse. Luckily the last half of the trail led us through the woods so we could have some shade. We actually ran out of water on this hike (we started with 2 L), so that made me a little nervous. I was getting pretty frustrated because it seemed like as we were getting closer to the top, the trail just took us around and around the mountain. I just wanted to be done! But finally we made it to the top, and it was all worth it!

The view from the top of the mountain.
Bless Joel's heart--he had to carry the heavy backpack. I carried the Skittles, though. That was my contribution. :)

The view from the deck of the mountain top grill.

I was sooo thankful to find out that you could order cold drinks there. I had a strawberry smoothie, and Joel had a banana one. We declined the alcohol since we could already not feel our legs . :)

The cheapest, quickest, and easiest way to get down...whoo-hoo! :)

That about summed up our trip. In all we figure we hiked about 20 miles. As many of you know, I'm not an outdoorsy kind of girl. But I love that Joel gets me outside to do things like this.

We both want to thank everyone who watched our kids while we were away: Joel's parents, my parents, and Kelly and Keith. The kids had so much fun that they probably didn't even notice that we were gone! We owe you all!!

Parika Lake

Our alarm went off at 5 a.m. Monday morning. This sounds early, but our bodies were still on Indiana time, which was 7 a.m. So really we were sleeping in, right? :) I have to admit I was dragging my feet a little bit that morning. Not because I was tired; I think I was scared to go out too early in the morning. You know, when all of the animals are too active and are looking for breakfast. :)

Joel asked if I wanted a Diet Coke, but I told him it was too early. Plus, I didn't want to get dehydrated or be too hydrated since there weren't any restrooms along our trail. We pulled into the Bowen-Baker Trailhead's parking lot at 5:50 a.m. By 5:55, we were on the trail.

Joel had reminded me to bring gloves, but I forgot. So I improvised with a pair of socks over my hands. Yeah, again--not pulling off the "serious hiker" look. It was about 40 degrees when we started, so it could've been a lot worse.
We crossed into a place called the "Never Summer Wilderness." That's never a good sign when you forgot to bring your gloves. :) There was also a sign that said to watch out for wildlife such as mountain lions and bears as "these animals can injure or kill you." Lovely. Like I didn't have enough to worry about as it was.

This hike was 10.8 miles long (5.4 miles to Parika Lake, then back the same path) and had an elevation change of roughly 2800 feet. Oh, yeah--I felt all 2800 feet of that in my hamstrings.

The scenery was beautiful, though. We would walk through a dense forest, then end up in a wide open meadow. One of the coolest places was this boulder field:

These were fun to climb through, though they did make me slow down as I kept losing my footing. Of course when Joel told me this is where we could see a mountain lion, I sped up the pace a little bit.

This log over the Grand Ditch seemed much higher off the ground than it does in this picture. :)

Luckily these logs were a little closer to the surface of the water. I did not want to get my new shoes wet or dirty, even though they were water-proof hiking shoes. Still...

I did everything I could to avoid any puddle of water or mud. I am sure I was annoying Joel because if he had been hiking with another guy, they would have been stomping through whatever they came across.

After hiking for a couple of hours, I was regretting not getting that Diet Coke in the morning. It was then that I did the math and realized we were going to still be hiking through lunch. At this point I was wondering why we were hiking up a mountain away from the car that could get me to civilization and food!

We got to a very steep part of the trail, and I was just praying to make it up. I found a stick on the ground, which I decided would make a good walking stick. It really helped take the pressure off of my left hip--the one that has been bothering me for a year and was just finally starting to get better. We checked the map and figured that we still had about 45 minutes to an hour to get to the lake. At this point I seriously wanted to cry. I could hardly get my legs to move another inch. Joel told me that we could turn back, but I felt too guilty giving up.

We kept thinking, "Oh! The lake should be right at the top of this hill!"...only to be faced with another hill farther away. At one point we got to a path that just kept getting longer and longer--kind of like the hallway in "The Shining." I was starting to wonder if I was losing my mind.

It wasn't much longer until we were at the base of the final incline. All we had to do was get through a little muddy spot, then we would climb the hill and be done! (Well, with the first part anyway.) This was the trickiest muddy spot as there were several large bushes on either side, not giving much room to get around the mud. I was getting clumsy and just ready to be there, and I slipped and submerged one of my shoes into the deep mud puddles. Oh yes, this was the mother of all mud puddles, too. At this point I think I threw my hiking stick and said something about hating that place, but mind you--I had low blood sugar and was without caffeine. It was a low point for me, for sure. I'm pretty sure a mountain lion was about to pounce, but changed its mind when he saw me freak out. So I really might have saved our lives. :)

But the view at the top was truly breathtaking...

This is Parika Lake at about 11,380 feet above sea level. And we had it all to ourselves, considering we had not seen a single soul all morning.

It was cool to stand at the top and be totally encompassed by beautiful surroundings. We rested for about 15 minutes, just having a snack and watching the marmots play and chase each other around. We would've stayed longer, but we were both motivated by the fact that we could have a nice lunch at the end of the trail. :)

It was funny how much more talkative we were on the way down. It could've been because we both knew we were halfway done, or it could've been because we could actually breathe again. It had taken us three hours to get to the top, so we were hoping it would be much less on the way down. We definitely didn't stop for as many rest breaks as we had before. In the end I think it took us about 2 hours, 30 minutes for the way down. Of course we did meet a few people on the way back--including a nice family from Auburn, Indiana, where Joel's aunt and uncle live. It was nice to see people...a sign that we weren't too crazy for tackling that trail.

My feet just felt so much lighter as we were walking through the meadow to where we had parked our car.

This was the view from the parking lot. It was a great feeling knowing that we had hiked all the way to the peak in the distance. And it was an even greater feeling knowing that a Diet Coke and a nice lunch were just a few miles down the road. This time, we were going by car. :)

Rocky Mountain National Park

On Sunday morning, Joel and I took a 7 a.m. flight from Indy to Denver, Colorado. The cool thing is that one of my former students (and current babysitter) was on our flight. She was heading with the Cathedral cross-country team for a week of training. I didn't envy her! :)

When our plane landed in Denver, we headed straight to Rocky Mountain National Park. After a quick bite of lunch, we took off on our first hike. Joel had picked the perfect trail to get me "warmed up" for Monday's big hike. This was about 3.6 miles round-trip to Emerald Lake. I was a little concerned considering I was huffing and puffing in the first 5 minutes of our hike. Seriously, if I would have had access to an oxygen tank, I would've hooked myself up! Joel then reminded me that we were starting at 9,475 feet...which is about 8,500 feet higher than Indiana. That made me feel a little better. :)

Stopping at one of the lakes along the trail.

The more we walked, the more beautiful things we discovered.

Snow!!!

We made it to Emerald Lake. The water was so clear--and freezing cold!

When we made it back to our starting point, Joel asked if I wanted to go back or try another trail. I wasn't quite ready to head back yet, so we continued onto another trail.

Yeah, I know--I do not look like a serious hiker with that necklace. :)

It started raining, sprinkling at first, then coming down hard. I guess it's pretty common for thunderstorms to appear every afternoon and last for only 15 minutes to an hour, then it clears up. I was a little concerned since we were up so high and just waiting to be magnets for the lightning. It even started hailing-or sleeting-at one point. Luckily, we survived. Plus, we stayed dry since Joel had been smart enough to throw in our ponchos. Way to be prepared, Joel!

Afterwards we took a not-so-relaxing-drive up Old Fall River Road. It was a 9-mile, one-way dirt road with narrow, steep switchbacks. Needless to say, I was terrified! I think I would have done better if I had been on foot. Something about being in a car next to huge cliffs makes me queasy. But Joel was a great driver and we made it through safely! When we got to the top, we saw this cute little marmot:

We figured out that we ended up hiking about 6 miles that day. After that we drove to a little town outside of the park called Grand Lake.

It was a cute little town, kind of like Nashville, Indiana. We went to a great BBQ place for dinner and just walked around by the lake. It was a nice relaxing way to end to the day!

Wordless Wednesday--Five-Year Pictures

Reese Lost Her First Tooth!

Reese has had a loose tooth several weeks now. When I took her to the dentist in May, I was surprised to hear the dentist say that she had two loose teeth. I mean, I help her brush her teeth, but I never notice if any are wiggling. After that, I couldn't resist checking now and then to see if they were making more progress. Within the past week, one tooth was definitely getting ready to come out.

This morning I was awoken by Reese bursting through the door and running into my room going, "Mommy! Mommy! I lost my first tooth!!" She was so excited and proud of her little baby tooth--it was too cute! I was actually relieved that she said it didn't hurt at all as I didn't want her to fear losing the rest of her teeth. (I don't need her to be anxious or dramatic about anything else--we have enough to deal with as it is!) :)

She promptly went and grabbed her little tooth fairy doll that has a pouch for her tooth. Grandma Marsh recently purchased this doll for her--how perfect! She wanted to put it under her pillow right away so she wouldn't lose it. So hopefully the tooth fairy will make her appearance tonight without waking Reese up. :)

The pictures were taken by Aunt Kelly, who clearly needs to be my kids' personal photographer. Thanks, Kelly!

My Little Performer

Reese is constantly putting on shows for us. Half of the time she sings song that she makes up off the top of her head, which can lead to some funny lyrics. You know, like "My boyfriend doesn't understand me because he speaks Spanish, and I speak English." Classic! But this is one that she has heard on Radio Disney: Hannah Montana's "Hoedown Throwdown." It's amazing...sometimes she even gets the words right. :)